Practical writing tips for young authors

(Bi)Weekly Writing Update – October 1-14, 2017

Oops. I kind of forgot I was doing these two weeks ago, and then I was out of town yesterday and couldn’t put together last week’s, so this is really late, but here’s my update for the past two weeks.

October 1 – Word Count: 448

The beginning of Preptober, as we NaNoWriMo participants call the month of October. A time to plan out our NaNos and get hyped up for the event. I put the novel information up for The Shadow Raven on the NaNoWriMo site (you can find it here, if you’re interested in reading the synopsis and an excerpt and seeing the temporary cover) and did some worldbuilding. Unfortunately, I didn’t write much of The Last Assassin.

October 2 – Word Count: 995

Well, I wrote almost 1k of The Last Assassin on the second. Thinking through things, I also found out that a scene from TLA will have to be entirely scrapped in editing, but that scene gave me some useful information all the same (some of which led to it being unusable). Catessa is sparring with some people at the barracks in that scene, and I realized that the relationships are all wrong since she’s been in the castle for three years. Oops.

October 3 – Word Count: 1,692

Hey, that’s actually a pretty good word count! Particularly seeing as I wrote it all in half an hour. But alas, it doesn’t last. :/ These words did contribute to TLA, but they’re not in order. The scene I wrote won’t happen for a while yet, but I’m still fairly happy with it and hoping I can weave it in nicely. I also realized – again – that I have no idea how to write battles and made a mental note to visit the library and check out some resources.

October 4 – Word Count: 448

That’s exactly the same word count as on the first! That’s kinda cool! It’s still kind of a wimpy word count, though, unfortunately. While I didn’t write much, I did figure out something crucial to the plot of The Dark War Trilogy. I also made a note about the possibility of writing a story set somewhere based on the inner city.

October 5 – Word Count: 152

That word count is just pitiful. However, I did finish Pellan Shyle’s character profile for my story binder and locked in my guest character interview for this month.

October 6 – Word Count: 1,000-ish

On the sixth I began another short story (which will probably end up on the blog at some point) called Surge, and put together my guest character interview for this month.

October 7 – Word Count: 478

This was the day I went to the library to check out resources for writing battles and war. I checked out nine books on warfare, out of the fourteen books I got. I should probably actually read those soon…

October 8 – Word Count: 1,040

That’s a bit better. I’m not sure what I worked on that day (I’m guessing it was The Last Assassin), but I know that I was really annoyed with myself for not being able to finish last week’s short story. *winces* I need to apologize for that, too. I didn’t mean to just not give you a short story last week, but all writing motivation vanished that week and I couldn’t manage to finish it on time. I’m really sorry about that.

October 9 – Word Count: 461

I’m pretty sure all I wrote Monday was a rant about not being able to write…

October 10 – Word Count: 678

Still no work on The Last Assassin. However, I did work on worldbuilding a new world (as if I need another one) called Parvani, which is actually the moon. It’s split into three sectors: the light side (Kamaria), the equator (Medea), and the dark side (Charna). It’s a really fascinating world, and I’ve linked to the aesthetics for each sector, which I had a lot of fun putting together.

October 11 – Word Count: 1,239

On Wednesday I completed chapter 22 of The Last Assassin, which was exciting for my miniature fandom (made up of my sister and my best friend), and which brought some satisfaction to me since I actually wrote something.

October 12 – Word Count: 2,028

Look at that! That’s the most I’ve written in a day in the whole two weeks! I wrote an entire chapter of The Last Assassin, and Catessa decided to derail my whole plan by being noble. Great job Catessa, but why did it have to be now when there’s half a timeline I’ll probably have to fix?

October 13 – Word Count: 454

I had to travel Friday evening, and I was panicking the entire day, so much that I couldn’t focus and barely made the above word count on this week’s short story. However, I did do a bit of people-watching at our stops on the trip and one of them has since culminated into an idea for a prequel to The Shadow Raven following Detren’s mentor, Terlon Screll. I was glad my mom brought her tablet along (mine’s broken) so that I could get in the last of my words to maintain my 4thewords streak. My bullet journal entry ends with the quote: “A writer’s life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” – Eugene Iosco. (Which is actually a little bit off. The accurate quote follows: “A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.”)

October 14 – Word Count: 494

Despite a very busy day, I managed to maintain my 4thewords streak yesterday, as well. Again, thanks to my mom’s tablet. I woke up early (the thick curtains in our hotel room didn’t close and so I woke up between seven and eight (I don’t remember exactly when) because it was light out. I wrote a bit of The Last Assassin, and Catessa might actually get out of her scrape without messing up my timeline, depending on how Detren reacts (it’s a crossover scene! I love crossover scenes. ^-^)

So that’s been my past two weeks. I’m afraid it hasn’t been very productive, but at least I’ve written a little bit every day, which is better than nothing. I eagerly await November’s word wars and forums buzzing with the productivity of writers. Soon…